GOD Teacher: Mitra, do you know who God is? Mitra: Whenever I look at the sun, the moon and the stars, I wonder who made all these beautiful things. Whenever I look at the trees and flowers, at animals, mountains and lakes, I wish to know who created them all. When I ask my parents, they tell me that God created them all. But still I do not know who God is and where did He come from. Teacher: I am glad to see you so curious. Well, I am going to talk about God today. Listen carefully. Dear children, nothing has come into being just by itself. Everything has a creator. Most things you see here in this classroom are made by man, but there are many many things man is unable to make. For instance, if you look at the sky so high and at the earth so wide, you will agree that man could not have made them. So, there must be a maker who is wiser and more powerful than man. This maker of everything is the one we call God. We are also created by God. God has given us eyes to see, ears to hear, a tongue to speak, a brain to think, rather every part of our body to do something good. God has granted us life. And whatever God has created, is useful and beautiful. We ought to be thankful to God for having created us and for giving us everything we need. 1 PROPHET Homa: Who is a prophet?" Teacher: We are all created with a power to choose right and wrong. Sometimes, because of our ignorance, we make mistakes. Then certain people rise amongst us to put us back at the right path. They become the great teachers and guides. We know them as prophets. Prophets appear at different times and in different lands. We have our prophet too. The first name of our Teacher, Guide or Prophet is Zarathushtra and his last name is Spitama. In English, we know Zarathushtra as Zoroaster, a word which has been taken from the Greek form of his name. Zarathushtra is the founder of our religion and our religion is called Din-e Behi-ye Mazdayasni-ye Zartoshti. It means the Good Zoroastrian Religion of Worshipping the Omnis- cient God. We call it in its short form "Din-e Zartoshti" in Persian, "Zarthoshti Din" in Gujrati or the "Zoroastrian religion" in English. Zarathushtra teaches us to live a happy useful life. He says, "Happiness to him who gives happiness to others whosoever they be." 2 Ashu-Zarthusht Budha 3 Moses Jesus 4 Parviz: Did people believe in one God before Zarathushtra? Teacher: We have no records to show that there were any people who believed in one Omniscient God before Zarathushtra. People believed in many gods, each god was supposed to be supervising a special function in the world. The sky, the sun, the moon, the earth, the wind, the waters, the trees each was supposed to have a god to govern and direct them. Zarathushtra was the first to tell mankind that there is only one God, Who is all wise, loving and powerful. A little later, Moses the founder of the Jewish religion, and still later, Jesus the founder of Christianity and then Mohammad the prophet of Islam preached the belief in one God. There have been other founders of religion in other lands. 5 RELIGION Farin: What is religion? Teacher: The best way of life shown to mankind by a prophet is called religion. It shows us how to live a true life, to be happy and successful in this world and in the next after death. A good religion should be progressive and help mankind to make the world better and more better. Cyrus: The name of our religion is the Zoroastrian Religion. But what is the meaning of word Parsi? Teacher: The Zoroastrians from India and Pakistan call themselves Parsis or Parsees. It is due to the fact that the ancestors of most of them embarked for India from the province of Pars in southern Iran. They are therefore called Parsis, people who came from Pars. The Zoroastrians who have emigrated from Iran in recent years are known as lranis, which simply means people from Iran. Parsis and Iranis are both Zoroastrians. Parsis living in India speak Gujrati and live like other Indians do and Iranis speak Persian and Dari and live like other Iranians do. But here in America, both speak English and live, more or less, like Americans do. Azar: Is a Zoroastrian priest called Mobed? Teacher: Yes, a Zoroastrian priest is called simply mobed, or Ervad (Hirbod) or Dastur according to his rank. 6 AVESTA Minoo: What is the name of our religious book? Teacher: The name of our religious book is Avesta. The Avesta is divided into five divisions: (1) Yasna, (2) Vispered (3) Yasht (4) Vendidad, and (5) Khordeh Avesta. First of all, let me tell you that we have other religious books also. However, the Avesta is the oldest part of them. It is in an ancient language, also called Avesta. Avesta is the language in which Zarathushtra and his companions and immediate followers spoke. We have books written in a later language. We call it Pahlavi. It was spoken by the Zoroastrians of Iran much later than Zarathushtra. Then we have certain prayers which are still in a little later dialect. It is called pazand. Sohrab: Please tell us more about the Avesta. Teacher: Sure, I will tell you something about each one of the divisions: 1. Yasna: It means reverence, because it contains praises of God the Creator and His good creation. Yasna has 72 chapters. It includes the five Gathas, the divine songs of Zarathushtra which are the very basic principles of our religion. 2. Vispered: Vispered, like Yasna, is also devoted to praising God and the creation. It has 24 chapters and concerns the celebration of the six seasonal festivals of thanksgiving. These festivals are called "Gahambars" and are the most sacred of our festivals. 7 3. Yasht: It means revered. At present, we have some 20 yashts, mostly hymns devoted to the worship of God and praise of "Amesha Spentas " , the divine attributes personified and certain "yazatas" who are reverential divinities. 4. Vendidad: It means the "Law against Evil" practices. It has 22 chapters and contains mostly rules and regulations concerning health, hygiene and purification as viewed in ancient days. It is not a prayer book. 5. Khordeh Avesta: It means the "Smaller Avesta." It is not an independent book but contains short prayers chosen out of the Avesta for daily use. It usually consists of: (a) Five Nyaishes in praise of the sun, the moon, the waters, the Fire, and Mithra (covenant). (b) Five Gahs or divisions of the day and night. (c) Afaringans or blessings (d) Various prayers in Avestan and pazand languages. 8 1. Anahita: Could you please tell us more about the Gathas? Teacher: Gathas mean Divine Songs. They are the direct teachings of Zarathushtra, composed by him in poetry. The Gathas are first in teaching mankind to worship only one Supreme Being, Ahura Mazda, the Creator and Maintainer of everything we see around us. They also teach how to live a good life that helps to promote the world we live in. The simplest and the purest form of the Zoroastrian religion is found in the Gathas. Roya: How many Gathas do we have? Teacher: There are five Gathas, collectively consisting of 17 songs in all. They are 9 (1) Ahunavaiti Gathas of seven songs, (2) Ushtavaiti Gathas of four songs, (3) Spenta Mainyu Gatha of four songs, (4) Vohu Khshathra Gatha of one longer song, and (5) Vahishta Ishti Gatha of one shorter song. Rostam: They say, the Avesta is not complete. Much of it was destroyed. Teacher: Yes. The Achaemenians were the first Zoroastrians who founded a big empire and united much of the civilized world in the 6th century B.C. That is about 2500 years ago. In 330 B.C., Alexander of Macedonia defeated King Darius III and put an end to the Achamenian empire. He also destroyed one of the two major copies of the Avesta kept in the royal treasury and took away the other for translation into Greek. He killed many mobeds too. However, he could not destroy what the remaining mobeds had in their memory and libraries. When the Parthians, another dynasty of Zoroastrians, defeated the Greeks in 220 B.C. and founded their empire, one of their emperors ordered that all scattered parts of the Avesta be collected. Later in Sassanian times, the third Zoroastrian dynasty to rule the Iranian empire, the work of collection was finally completed and the Avesta was divided into 21 nasks or volumes. Later when the Sassanian Empire was brought down by the invading Muslims, the Avesta was once again scattered. Again the mobeds made an effort to collect what they could. Fortunately, according to what the scholars tell us, we still have most of the religious texts in hand, particularly the Gathic parts of the scriptures are complete. It means that we have the true Message of Zarathushtra intact. What was lost, is the commentary and suplementary parts of the large collections. 10 LIGHT AND FIRE Arya: Why do we Zoroastrians face a light or fire when we pray? Teacher: Fire, light and all the good luminaries remind us of the divine light, purity and love of Ahura Mazda. Light is the visible symbol of God who is invisible.